


Send in the Clowns

by PattRose



Series: The Horror Series 4 [2]
Category: The Sentinel
Genre: Angst, M/M, Mild Language, Not very scary, Spook Me Multi-Fandom Halloween Ficathon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-26
Updated: 2017-10-26
Packaged: 2019-01-06 23:16:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12220965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PattRose/pseuds/PattRose
Summary: Jim and Blair and the rest of the bullpen gang are investigating a string of murders where the suspect makes up the victims face like a clown.  Will Blair be able to point them in the right direction?





	Send in the Clowns

Send in the Clowns  
By PattRose  
Summary: Jim and Blair and the rest of the bullpen gang are investigating a string of murders where the suspect makes up the victims face like a clown. Will Blair be able to point them in the right direction?  
Fandom: The Sentinel  
Creature: Clown  
Warnings: Angst and language (Not really scary)  
Genre: Slash  
Rating: Teen  
Word Count: 3752

[ ](http://s71.photobucket.com/user/PattRose1/media/sendintheclowns2_zpsdhvb5ojt.jpg.html)

Blair Sandburg was so happy to be working in Major Crimes these days. Simon saw to it that Blair would be their new consultant. And consult, he did. He and Jim continued to have the best arrest record around and the commissioner was very pleased. The consultant job had been Blair’s for about three months and this week he was put to the test.

There was a killer in Cascade that poisoned his victims, then once they were dead painted their faces up like a clown. Jim didn’t know what to make of it, but Blair had some ideas about it. 

Simon stood in the doorway of his office and barked, “Sandburg, my office.”

Blair stood up like he was in trouble and Jim said, “Tell him your ideas, Chief.”

So Blair walked into Simon’s office looking very brave even though he didn’t feel that way. “Problem, Simon?”

“Do you have any ideas about this person that is murdering people and painting them up like clowns? It’s only been 9 days and there are already six victims. Please tell me you have some ideas.”

Blair smiled at his distraught boss. “Well, as a matter of fact, I think we should look for reports of abuse in the circus area. I wonder if this person was raised in a circus lifestyle and his parents were clowns. And I also wonder if they abused him and had the police called on them from time to time. It would give us something to work towards. It’s better than any of the other ideas we had.”

“Do you think it might be a guy or a woman?” Simon asked, relieved that Blair had somewhere to check. 

“I would believe it’s either a man or a really strong woman. He’s holding them down while he pours poison down their throats, so he’s got to be strong. But that’s not saying that it couldn’t be a super strong woman. And let’s not forget about the string around their necks attached to a heart shaped balloon. We’re going to start looking for reports from the last 10-20 years. That seems about right to us. Now, if you let me get out there I can get my job done much sooner than later.”

It was Simon’s turn to smile. “Get… Keep me apprised of anything you find.”

Blair practically ran from his office and sat down at his desk next to Jim’s. “Hey, partner. Have you found anything?”

“Megan and I have been searching and we found six different families with abuse cases that were called on people that worked for the circus while they were here in Cascade. Five of them were girls and one was a boy. The boy was taken away from his parents for physical abuse and they were clowns. The boy swore it wasn’t them, so nothing was done to the parents and the child grew up in a string of foster homes while his parents left the city. We checked on the foster homes and he went from one to another every other month or so. He was six when his parents left him there and lived in the foster program until he was 18. That was about a year ago. In fact, it was one year ago since his 18th birthday that the murders started. What do you think?”

“Jim, this is fantastic news. We might already have our man. What is his name and what does he look like?”

Jim grinned over the fact that he actually found something without Blair telling him what to do. “His name is Daniel Trapper. We have no pictures of him. He’s never had a license, at least under this name, and I don’t know where he lives now.”

“Maybe we could start out at the last foster home he was at. They might have some pictures of him. You never know, right?” Blair asked. 

“Great idea, Chief. We’ll get Megan and see if she wants to go with us,” Jim suggested. 

“I have a better idea, Jim. We have her go through the web pages and see who sells clown makeup and has anyone in Cascade bought a ton of it lately?”

Jim got up and went and asked Megan to do that very thing. Then he went and told Simon where they were going. Simon was so impressed that they already had a lead. Not a sure lead, but a lead non-the-less.

Once they were driving Blair asked, “You don’t think he works for the circus in town do you?”

“You mean as a clown? Don’t you think that would be a little obvious? I would think he would try to stay under the radar somewhat. But I could be wrong.”

“Where else would they have clowns working, Jim?”

“At birthday parties, adult parties. Hell that might be where he got the names of the victims from. We need to see if they have anything in common. We’ll do that as soon as we see this foster home family.”

They drove up and the two men walked up to the front door and knocked. A younger man opened the door that looked sad. “Can I help you?”

“Yes, my name is Detective Ellison and this is Blair Sandburg, a consultant for Major Crimes. We’re here to ask questions about Daniel Trapper.”

“What about him? He’s been gone for a year. My wife would have probably been able to help you out, but she was murdered last week.”

Jim and Blair looked at each other and were shocked. “Could you tell us a little about that, sir?” Blair asked. 

“Come in and I’ll tell you all about my wife…” he opened the door and both men entered. “Sit down and I’ll get you some water.”

Jim thought that was odd, but the man said his wife just died. Jim leaned into Blair and said, “Doesn’t he look a little young for the man we’re looking for?”

“Actually, there is only a woman’s name on the paper. Sandra Hopkins is her name. Jim, where is that man right now?”

Jim cocked his head to the side and listened for the young man’s heartbeat and knew they alone in the house. “Son-of-a-bitch. He must have been Daniel Trapper. We’re alone in the house. I should have known something was off when he offered to get us water, when we didn’t ask for any. Shit.”

“You drive and I’ll draw a picture of what I thought he looked like. I haven’t used my skills in drawing in a long, long while. This will be perfect. We now know what Daniel looks like.”

Jim put in a call to Simon as they sat in front of the house. “Simon, we might have found our guy, but we didn’t know it was him and he got away. Blair is drawing a sketch of him right now. We’ll have something soon. His name is Daniel Trapper. He’s 19 years old and we still know nothing about him, but could you do me a favor? Look and see if Sandra Hopkins was one of the victims from last week?”

“Hang on Jim. Let me pull up the names of the victims. Yes, Sandra Hopkins was one of them. What does she have to do with this Trapper guy?”

“She was the foster mom at his last foster home. I don’t know what that means yet, Simon. He didn’t look insane or anything. He looked sad, if anything.”

“Maybe he was sad that you caught him,” Simon guessed. 

“Maybe. We’ll be in soon. Could you have Megan look and see if any of the other names match names from the list of foster home parents?”

“Certainly, I don’t have anything else to do. Let me just stop doing what I was doing to go and take care of your case for you.”

“Never mind, Simon. We’ll ask her to help us when we get there.”

“Good idea, Jim. Hurry it up. We don’t want any other murders this week.”

Jim turned to Blair and noticed Blair was trying not to laugh. “Oh shut up. I forgot for a moment who I was talking to.”

Blair burst out laughing and asked, “What do you think of this drawing?” He handed the sheet to Jim and Jim whistled. 

“Chief, he looks just like the man that we saw. Now we can put an APB out on him and maybe even put his face on the news. What do you think?”

“We’ll see what Simon says. Let’s get into the office right now.”

Jim took off putting his lights and siren on. There was no time to lose. God only knew who he was going to kill next. “Maybe we’re catch a fucking break, Chief.”

“Maybe…”

*

As the two men got off the elevator, Megan caught up to them and said, “All of the names on the list have been murdered. I now have the next four names that he would be looking for.” She handed the paper to Blair.

Blair asked, “Are these addresses good, Megan?”

“Three of them are. The fourth one I couldn’t get a hold of anyone there. Should we sent a patrol car out to them to make sure they are all right?”

Jim nodded. “That’s a good idea, Megan. Send them out and I want a couple of officers put on each family that is left on the list. We also need to get a copy made of the sketch. Then all the officers will know what Daniel looks like. Well, without makeup on, if he’s dressing up like a clown that would be a bad thing.”

Blair smiled at Jim and said, “We’ll just tell the officers sent out that to be on the lookout for anyone dressed like a clown or if he looks like the sketch.”

“Get tons of the sketches made up right away, Chief. We need to get on top of this. No more dead people this week. Well, from this guy, anyhow.”

Jim called for the officers to come up to the conference room. Rafe, Brown, Taggert and Megan were four of them. Jim and Blair were going to take a family also. 

Megan already had the addresses, names and phone numbers for all of the families. Blair came rushing into the room with the sketches and said, “Here you go. This is what he looks like when he’s not a clown. Not that we know he’s a clown anyhow. But he might be. That might be how he’s getting away with this. Don’t let anyone near those families that is dressed like a clown or resembles this sketch at all. Right, Simon?”

“Right, Sandburg. Good job, all of you. Take your assignments and use lights and sirens to get there. Call in and report once you do. Be careful, everyone. He seems to know his poison information, so don’t turn your back on anyone you don’t know.”

They all took their papers and their sketches and took off for their assignments. 

Simon went and hand delivered the sketches to all the floors and an APB was put out within moments.

*

A man driving down the street was receiving quite a few odd looks since he was made up like a clown. In fact, he was made up like a happy, yet almost evil looking clown. Inside, the clown was smiling because he was going to make the next family pay for what they had done to him. They kept him from being a clown. None of the homes he lived in would let him dress up and put makeup on like a clown. Daniel was going to be sure he got the last laugh. He glanced in his back seat to be sure he had the balloons ready.

*

No officers that left drove police cars. They took their own vehicles so that they wouldn’t alert the killer right away.

Jim and Blair got to their destination and rang the doorbell. A woman answered and asked, “Can I help you?”

Jim introduced him and Blair to the woman and asked if they could come in. She asked to see ID and then opened the door for them to enter. 

Blair explained to the woman why they were there and if she had heard from Daniel in the last week. 

“You know, someone called me today to see if I was home. I said I was on my way out the door because it freaked me out a little. You mean those people that have been killed were foster parents of Daniel?”

“Yes, Mrs. Smith, that’s who we think is behind this. Is your husband home?” Jim asked. 

“My husband passed away about two years ago. It’s just me now,” she said. 

Blair said, “Excuse me, I need to make a call into the station house.” Blair picked up his phone and called Simon. 

“Banks…”

“Simon, has everyone checked in?”

“You’re the last ones. Everyone is safe for now, anyhow. Is Mr. and Mrs. Smith all right?” 

“Mr. Smith died two years ago. So Mrs. Smith is here with us and doing well.”

“Ask her if she has any grown children.”

“Mrs. Smith, do you have any grown children?”

“Yes, I have a daughter, Mary, who is 18. She’s at work. Why?” Mrs. Smith asked nervously. 

Jim asked, “Where does she work?”

“She’s works part time at the donut shop making money to help with college.”

“Do you have the address of her job? We need to send an officer to her right away.”

Mary told them the address. Blair told Simon and Simon said he would take it from there. 

When Blair closed his phone, Mrs. Smith said, “I had no idea he wasn’t right. We did think it was odd that he wanted to dress up like a clown all the time. He wanted makeup on all the time. Jasmine got mad at him one day because he used all of her play makeup to make his face up into a clown. My husband punished him and took Jasmine down to buy new play makeup. Oh my God, he’s going to hurt my daughter, isn’t he?”

“Not if we can help it, ma’am,” Blair assured her. 

Jim looked over at the women who was scared out of her mind. “Let’s sit down and wait to hear some news about your daughter. They will probably bring her home right now.”

“I’m so rude, would you gentlemen like some coffee?” 

Jim’s hearing was acting up. Mrs. Smith’s heart was pounding much too loud. Why would she be upset before she knew anything about her daughter? “No thank you, Mrs. Smith. Could we see pictures of Daniel? Do you have any of your past children?”

Blair looked at Jim and wondered where he was going with this. 

“I don’t have any pictures of Daniel. I’m sorry about that.”

Jim sat down next to her and asked, “You’re not Mrs. Smith are you?”

“Why would you say that? Of course I am.”

“Could you show me your ID, Mrs. Smith? Jim asked calmly. He didn’t want to agitate her in any way. 

“How did you know? You couldn’t have known. You’re some type of demon. I’m not sorry for what I did,” she replied. 

“Blair, will you please check the rest of the house for Mrs. Smith and maybe even her daughter?”

“Sure, man. I’ll be right back.”

Jim read the woman her rights and then cuffed her. He could hear Blair calling Simon. Blair had found Mrs. Smith and her daughter, both dead. 

Blair came out and said, “I’ll stay with her, go and check things out. You might find something.”

Jim walked into the room and almost jumped. Both women were done up like happy faced clowns and very colorful. They each had heart shaped balloons tied around their necks. It was frightening to Jim. He never much liked clowns to start with, now he really didn’t like them.

Jim checked around their bodies without disturbing anything and found a small ticket to the circus. Jim zeroed in to see if there was anything on the ticket and it said, _Send in the clowns_. Jim didn’t know what that meant, but he knew it wasn’t good. 

When he joined Blair he noticed that the woman was upset about being interrupted. “Excuse me ma’am. Why in the world would you kill Mrs. Smith and her daughter, if that is indeed her daughter?”

“I didn’t kill anyone. I was only here looking for something and found their bodies in the room. I didn’t do that.”

Jim walked over and grabbed her hand and looked at her nails. “Blair, she doesn’t have any paint on her fingers or nails. I don’t understand.”

“This is probably Daniel’s mom. She’s probably trying to clean up his messes,” Blair guessed. 

“Do you have children?” She blurted out. 

“No, we don’t,” Blair answered. 

“Typical answer from someone who doesn’t know what it’s like to give up their entire life for another human being.”

“Mrs. Trapper, you didn’t have Daniel for all those years, so cut the bullshit. What were you doing here today?” Jim asked. 

“I was trying to stop Daniel before it got even worse for him. I only found him a month ago. He doesn’t know who I am. He thinks I’m just some nice woman he met at the apartments.”

“You know where he lives?” Blair asked. 

“I’m not telling you. You’ll hunt him down and kill him. You already took him away from me once, I refuse to have it happen a second time.”

“Mrs. Trapper, Daniel is 19 years old. He is clearly unstable and could go to a mental hospital for a few years and get out at a fairly young age. Wouldn’t you rather have that happen then to have him be hunt down by the police and shot and killed while resisting arrest?” Blair knew he was getting somewhere. 

“We’ll go to my apartment. It’s right below his and I’ll see if he can come for cake and ice cream and then you can take him into custody without hurting him. You promise, right?”

Jim nodded. “We promise. Let’s call this in, Blair, and then get over to the apartment complex and see if we can stop this young man from killing someone else.”

They waited for Simon and the coroner to show up and Jim and Blair took Mrs. Trapper to the apartment complex that she directed them too. 

Once they were there, she had Jim and Blair sit in her apartment and went upstairs to get Daniel. She knocked on the door, never knowing that Jim could hear everything said from down there. Daniel opened the door and Mrs. Trapper jumped back at the happy faced clown who answered the door. 

“What do you want?”

“Daniel, do you want to live? If so, you have to leave right now. There are two policemen downstairs waiting for you. They’re going to lock you up and throw away the key.”

He grabbed her, pulled her inside and started to choke her. 

Before he could kill her, Jim busted down the door and stopped him from killing his mother. Jim put cuffs on him and said, “Did she tell you she was your mom?”

Daniel looked totally shocked and hurt. “Mom? Why didn’t you come for me in all these years?”

“I tried Daniel, but your father wouldn’t let me go. I finally killed him and came for you. I’m very proud of how well you learned to do the faces at such a young age. You would have made a wonderful clown.”

He jumped up and screamed, “I am a wonderful clown. I was always good at my job. They never suspected a thing.”

Jim read him his rights and then read Mrs. Trapper hers. 

“I’m glad you got some of the people that must have abused you all through the years,” she guessed. 

“They never abused me. I just like being a clown and they wouldn’t let me be one. It’s all their fault.”

“Oh sweetheart, I agree. I wish I could hug you.”

“Mom, you should have killed dad years ago and come for me. We could have been clowns together.”

Blair looked over at Jim and both men rolled their eyes upward. Suddenly sirens could be heard and two black and whites were in the parking lot, waiting to take the two clowns to the station.

“Thank you, Detective Ellison for keeping your word about not killing my son.”

“You don’t seem to get it, he was going to kill you. He enjoys killing now.”

“He’s a perfect clown, isn’t he? He always was. We were a perfect clown family. If the state would have stayed out of our business, all those people would still be alive.”

They put Mrs. Trapper in one squad car and Daniel in another. Jim didn’t want them near each other. God only knows what would happen then. 

Jim leaned down and asked Mrs. Trapper, what does a ticket saying Send in the Clowns mean?”

“They played a song for us and we would appear each night of the circus and carnivals we were part of. That’s what our name was. It’s perfect, just like we are.”

Jim shut the back door and pounded the roof to let the cops know they could leave. 

Simon walked up and said, “You both did an extremely good job. The commissioner will be thrilled to have them off the street. Were they both insane?”

“Oh no, sir. They were perfect clowns, don’t you know?” Jim asked whistling all the way to his truck. 

Blair shrugged and said, “It’s been a long day, Simon.”

“Great job. Get the paperwork done and you can have the weekend off to go camping or whatever you lovebirds do these days.”

“Thanks, Simon. I’ll tell Jim on the way to the station.”

And Blair did just that.

[ ](http://s71.photobucket.com/user/PattRose1/media/endpic_zps5emoe8oq.jpg.html)

The end 


End file.
